The prior art is replete with “prepaid” or “gift” cards that can be used by customers of retail and service establishments as a form of payment in lieu of cash or credit card transactions. For example, many department stores, restaurants, and coffee shops offer prepaid cards to their customers. Historically, prepaid or gift cards have not been made available for certain types of goods and products, such as life science research products, biological reagents, laboratory specimens, and the like, particularly when a significant number of the purchasers of such products are government purchasers, academic purchasers, or other persons or entities that are governed by certain procurement, appropriations, and spending rules and regulations. For example, government purchasers may be restricted by regulations and laws (such as the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the Anti-Deficiency Act, or the “bona fide needs” rule), which may prohibit the spending of government funds in advance, require competitive bidding for purchases that exceed a specified amount, or mandate “fair and reasonable” pricing for all purchases.
Most government purchasing departments charge their end users an administrative fee to buy products on behalf of the government. The administrative fee for a given purchase can represent a significant expenditure of funds that could otherwise be spent on additional product. Unfortunately, these administrative fees are assessed for each new purchase made by such end users.
Furthermore, the market for life science research products and services is becoming increasingly competitive, particularly for “commodity” products such as oligonucleotides. In this regard, traditional purchasing models (including typical e-commerce models) may not sufficiently streamline the product purchasing routine for customers, provide a means to fully utilize available funding, encourage purchasers to use online ordering, foster brand loyalty, or establish long term purchase commitments.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a purchase card system for government and academic purchasers, where the system is in compliance with mandated procurement, spending, and appropriations rules, regulations, and laws. In addition, it is desirable to have a purchase card system for life sciences research products and services that provides a legal and ethical means to avoid excessive administrative fees associated with the purchase of certain products. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.